


Domesticated

by bitboozy



Series: Domesticated [18]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Baby Hardy Bastard Child of Broadchurch, Established Relationship, F/M, Gen, Office Sex, Romance, as the title would suggest, insatiable!Ellie, jealous!alec, pure domesticness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-09-28 00:54:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20417189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitboozy/pseuds/bitboozy
Summary: One night and a day in the life of the Hardy-Millers, plus Alec and Ellie have a very difficult conversation with their children.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is truly just an entire chapter of Alec and Ellie getting ready for bed. That's it. That's all. Nothing else happens. Take it or leave it!
> 
> Also, written at about 3am after an 18 hour travel day so please excuse any typos or nonsense.

Ellie Miller’s favorite nights are the nights they’re both in bed by 10pm. Fred’s asleep, the teenagers are on their own but at bay, and they can just change into their pyjamas, crawl into bed, and grab their respective books with mugs of chamomile tea on their bedside tables. 

Tonight is one such night. He’s reading Le Carre’s _The Night Manager _(he always seems to have a Le Carre at his bedside), and she’s reading a biography of Margaret Thatcher, just to torture herself. (She has a bad habit of choosing books that will make her blood boil.) She loves the quiet intimacy of these moments, when they can lie side by side, each be doing their own thing, and not have to talk, all the while just feeling the warmth of the other just inches away, a great comfort. She loves him with his reading glasses on, which sometimes ruins these quiet moments because she wants to jump him with those on, and she loves that he’ll sometimes just unconsciously reach out a hand to touch her, as if he’s just confirming she’s there. She loves that he finds his security and contentment in _touch_, loves that no matter what they’re doing or not doing, he’ll find a way to have a hand somewhere on her.

After a particularly frustrating paragraph in her book, she glances over at Alec, and smiles at the look of sheer concentration on his face. She reaches over to rub his shoulder affectionately, then turns back to her book. A few minutes later, she hears him snort, probably at something a character has said. One of the things she’s been most surprised to learn about him throughout the course of their relationship is how actively he reads his books – sometimes even responding out loud. She looks at him, again, smiling, and he doesn’t seem to notice. She lays her book down on her legs, then stealthily reaches over to carefully pull off his glasses. 

He smirks to himself, then turns to smirk at _her_. “Can I help you?”

She turns toward him, her book falling off her lap. “Dunno, can you?”

They both lean in at the same time, pressing their lips together softly.

“How’s Mrs. Thatcher?” He asks then, one eyebrow raised.

“Infuriating,” she replies. “Where’s Le Carre taken this one?” 

“They’re in bloody Mallorca for some godforsaken reason.”

“Hmm.” She kisses his cheek, and hands him back his glasses. “Let you get back to it then.”

“Just thought you’d interrupt me for a kiss?”

She shrugs impishly. “Yeah, why not.”

She turns back to her book, and he puts his glasses back on and turns to his book.

A few minutes pass this way, and then Alec puts his book down on his lap. It takes a few seconds for her to clock this, and she turns to see him staring straight ahead with a lazy smile on his face.

“What?”

He doesn’t look at her, just continues smiling at nothing. “Just thinkin’ of this afternoon.”

“Oh.” She blushes, and slips her bookmark into her book. “Right.” She’d almost forgotten, it had happened so quickly. 

“You should feel free to do that more often.” He turns to look at her now, and his cheeks are a bit flushed. “Though we ought to be more careful at the office. Anyone might’ve walked in.” 

She raises an eyebrow. “You were singing a very different tune when I had your cock in my mouth.”

He opens his mouth and shakes his head, then grins. “Fair enough, yeah.”

This past afternoon, shortly after lunch, she’d slipped unexpectedly into his office, closing the door quickly behind her. The look in her eyes told him immediately that she had something naughty on her mind, and within seconds she was on her knees, unzipping his trousers, stroking him until he was hard. Which didn’t take very long.

His eyes brighten at the recent memory. “Must say I am quite enamored of Pregnant Ellie and her raging hormones.”

She can only shrug. “Comes over me quite suddenly. One minute I’m staring at CCTV, the next I’m crossing my legs under my desk and digging my nails into the chair.”

He grunts a little at the thought.

“You were quite tense anyway, I figure I did the whole team a service by _relieving your __stress_.” She wiggles her eyebrows at him.

“Imagine what Jenkinson would do if she walked into my office and found you on your knees.”

Ellie flutters her eyelashes. “Seethe with jealousy?” 

He smirks. “Toward you or me?”

Her eyes widen. “…Never thought about it.”

As they ponder their boss’s sexuality, their bedroom door creaks open. They turn their attention to the door and find a sleepy Fred standing there, holding his stuffed giraffe at his side. They both sit up a bit.

“What is it, lovely?” Ellie calls to him. “Bad dream?”

Fred nods, rubbing his eyes.

“Poor thing.”

Alec pats the mattress. “Come on then, lad.” 

Fred scurries over to the bed and climbs onto it. Alec and Ellie both place their books on their respective nightstands. Fred flings himself at Ellie and snuggles into her. She kisses the top of his head. Alec reaches out and rubs his back.

“Can I sleep here tonight?”

Alec and Ellie exchange knowing glances. “Course you can, love,” she replies.

This is a dance they do at least once a week. Fred pops in after a bad dream, begs to sleep in their bed, passes out quickly, and within twenty minutes they determine he’s dead to the world and carry him back to his own bed, the child none the wiser in the morning. 

Fred clings to Ellie’s side, an arm around her stomach and his face against her breast. As per usual. The two adults pick up their books again, and resume reading in silence for awhile. The child is asleep quickly, shifting frequently until he settles his head in Alec’s lap and his feet on Ellie’s stomach.

When he kicks her ever so slightly, she flinches, shaking her head incredulously. “Ow, christ. Swear to god, they kick the ever-loving shite out of you when they’re _inside _you and then can’t help themselves once they’re finally outside you.”

Alec reaches a hand over and lays his palm flat on her stomach. “Ought to keep an eye on that now.”

“Oh, no, he’s fine,” Ellie insists. “He’s not _that _strong.”

Alec looks at her austerely over the rims of his reading glasses. “He is, though, El.”

“Right, well, so are you and you don’t see me kicking _you _out of bed.”

He sighs. “Yet.”

Once at least twenty minutes have passed, Alec looks down at Fred to check that he’s deeply asleep. Ellie tugs at the child’s ear, and he doesn’t flinch. This is the universal sign that five-year-old Fred Miller is at last dead to the world.

“He’s done for,” Ellie confirms.

“Right.” Alec pushes off the covers and gets out of bed, then scoops the child up in his arms. “Back in a mo.”

Ellie grins privately as she watches him carry her son out of the room and back to his own. She doesn’t pick up her book again, and instead waits for him to return. When he re-enters the room, she says, “Hand me my mobile, will you? Left it on the bureau.” 

He grabs it and tosses it to her before crawling under the covers again beside her. She’s examining her messages. She feels around for his reading glasses, then balances them on the bridge of her nose.

“Looks like we’ve _conjured _her,” Ellie says, bitterly, staring at her phone screen. “Jenkinson wants us in by eight tomorrow apparently.”

He’s smiling crookedly at her. “El.” She looks at him, questioningly. He holds out his hand for the glasses. “Get your own.” 

She rolls her eyes and returns the glasses to him. “Don’t need ‘em.”

“Oh, really?”

She glowers at him. “If I’m young enough to get pregnant then I’m too young for bloody reading glasses.”

“Don’t think that’s how it works.”

“Really, then, tell me more about _how it works_.”

She’s pouting now and all he wants to do is kiss her. She can tell. “Don’t you dare kiss me.” 

He feigns offense. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” 

She turns onto her side facing him, fluffing her pillow beneath her sleepily. “I’m good and knackered.”

He turns on his side too, to face her. “So’m I.” He glances at the alarm clock behind her. “It’s half ten.”

She laughs, so he does too. “Bloody pathetic,” she says through chuckles.

“S’pose no one could blame us for trying to get as much sleep as we can, while we can." 

She shudders to think about their sleepless life now less than eight months away. “Been thinking we might look for a new bed. Mattress, bed frame, the lot.”

“Something wrong with this one?”

“Nothing, ‘cept it’s not _ours_.” At the very least, years ago she had replaced the mattress she’d shared with Joe, but it’s still the one she bought on her own just after the trial ended. “Thought we could pick one out together, give this one to Daisy. Maybe be decadent and get us a _queen size_.”

“What, this too snug for you?” He replies. “Maybe you’d like me on the couch instead.”

“Oh, don’t be a twat, you can spoon me just as nicely on a queen size as you can on this,” she counters. “Just think a little extra room might be useful in the long run. Soon I’ll be the size of St. James’ and shortly thereafter there’ll be a small baby sleeping between us from time to time.” 

The image of it smacks him swiftly in the face. “…’Spose we will, then.” He leans over and kisses her softly on the lips.

“What was that for?”

“Nothin’,” he answers, snuggling back into his pillow. “Daiz’ll be thrilled to have a proper full size.”

“I thought she might be.”

“Although.” He furrows his brows, suddenly deep in thought. “You know. I’ve just realized that in less than eight months there’ll be four children in this house.” 

Her eyes widen. “Blimey.”

“Four children, two adults, and…three and a half bedrooms.” She frowns. “The old study barely counts for Daiz.” She has concede that.

“Right.”

“Fred’ll have to move in with Tom.”

Ellie shudders. “Tom’d _never _forgive us. Ever.”

He’s deep in thought. “You know, we might…”

“Might what?”

“Instead of getting a new mattress…” He’s still sorting through his thoughts.

“I’m getting that new mattress, I don’t care what you say,” Ellie insists stubbornly.

“…we might consider a new _house_.”

“…Oh,” she exhales, trying and failing to mask her surprise.

He reacts quickly to the shock on her face. “Just a thought. No need to make any decisions now.”

“…Right.”

“On that note, though….”

She hides her face in her pillow. “God, what now?”

“We need to find a time to tell the kids.”

She peeks out again. His eyebrow looks like it’s permanently raised.

“We put it off any longer and they’ll figure it out for themselves,” he continues. “And be furious at us.”

She inches toward him and buries her face in his shoulder instead of her pillow this time, groaning a bit.

“Tomorrow after dinner?” He suggests.

“Fine,” she murmurs into his shoulder, then pulls back to look at him. “We’ll just have more people to tell then.”

“How d’you mean?”

“Well, even if we tell the kids to keep it under wraps for now, they’ll not be very good at it,” Ellie explains. “We’ll need to tell a few others to save them from the shock of it.” 

“Right.” Alec nods. “Daisy will tell Chloe. So – “

“We’ll need to tell Beth, right. And then Dad and Luce,” she adds. “Luce can handle Olly since he’s back in London.”

“Oh, bloody hell, your father is going to have my head on a silver platter, isn’t he.”

Ellie ignores him. For her own sanity. “We’ll need to loop in Fred’s teachers at nursery, he’ll not be able to keep quiet and who knows how he’ll deal with it at school.”

“Jenkinson ought to wait until the second trimester,” Alec says. 

“I agree, if she hasn’t deduced it on her own by then,” Ellie replies. “She’s quite a detective after all.”

Alec is quiet suddenly, and goes pale.

“What?” 

“…Tess.”

Ellie exhales. “Right.”

“We’ll need to tell Tess before Daisy, I reckon. First thing Daisy’ll do is go right to Tess with it,” he says. “And Tess does _not_ like to be blindsided.”

“No, you’re right, we ought to gives her a heads up, just out of respect,” Ellie agrees. “Want to keep things on the up and up with her throughout all this, for Daisy’s sake.”

Alec starts fishing around for his mobile.

“What’re you doing?” Ellie questions, a bit alarmed.

He finds it. “If we’re going to tell the kids tomorrow…”

“Alec, it’s going on eleven at night.”

“She’s up,” Alec insists knowingly. “She’s like me. The me before you, anyway.” The Alec that didn’t sleep. Who has fortunately been replaced by the Alec that sleeps quite well in the arms of the woman he loves. Who knew? 

Ellie frowns, then sits up. “Should I – want me to…”

“To what?”

“Dunno, give you some privacy?”

“What for?”

“All right, fine then.”

They both sit up, leaning against the headboard. Alec dials Tess.

“Do it nicely, eh?” Ellie says, looking at him earnestly.

“When have I ever not been nice?”

She stares at him dubiously. He grimaces back at her, then puts the phone to his ear.

“Tess. No, no, everythin’s fine, Daisy’s fine. Didn’t wake you, did I? No, thought not.”

Ellie scoots closer to him, laying her head on his shoulder and holding onto his arm as she listens to his side of the conversation.

“Listen, just wanted to give you a heads up about something. Daiz’ll find out tomorrow, so um…” He exhales, and Ellie looks up to give him a reassuring smile.

“Right so, Ellie’s pregnant. No, ‘m not takin’ the piss. Not been drinkin’ either.” He makes a face at Ellie, plainly irritated by his ex-wife.

“Ellie’s pregnant, and so we’re um, we’re havin’ a baby. Uh, ‘bout seven weeks along.” He sighs heavily and it would be a full on groan if Tess wouldn’t have been able to hear it.

“_No_, ‘s not because of what you said, god’s sake, Tess, not like I immediately went off to her and said ‘Tess thinks we ought to have a baby, let’s get to it.’” Ellie’s eyes widen and she sits up a bit.

“Just happened, yeah, it was an…it was unplanned.” His expression softens.

“We’re quite pleased as it happens. _No_, she’s not sitting right here.” Ellie winces and Alec almost laughs at her face.

“I’m…listen, what d’you want me to say, ‘m telling you because I thought you should hear it from me, not because I’m tryin’ to hurt ya. Fine, then, I’m…well. Bit over the moon, actually.” Ellie is grinning.

“Yes. I know you did. Yes, it _is _ironic.” Then he’s silent for longer than Ellie’s curiosity will tolerate. She sits up a bit and nudges him, question marks appearing in her eyes.

“_No_. No. God’s sake, Tess. No.” Ellie is frowning in confusion.

“Right, then. Yeah, after dinner tomorrow. Yeah, okay. …Thanks. I appreciate that.” Ellie relaxes a bit again.

“All right. All right.”

He hangs up, setting the mobile aside. “Went quite well, I think.”

“Oh, good.”

“Gives herself all the credit, after what she said on moving day.”

Ellie sighs heavily, just as Alec had. “’Course she does.” 

“Seems all right with it though. Sends her congratulations along to you.”

She nods. “What was that bit at the end there? You kept telling her _no_?”

“Oh, right.” Alec shakes his head. “Wanted to know if we were plannin’ to get married.”

Ellie makes a face. It’s the same face he’s making.

“I know, ’s what I told her.”

“…we’re going to start getting that question a lot, aren’t we?” Ellie realizes.

“…Yeah. Reckon so.”

“Ah, well.” She throws an arm across his chest and rests her head on his shoulder. He slips both arms around her. “Let ‘em wonder, eh?”

“Wouldn’t want to rob Baby Hardy, Bastard Child of Broadchurch of his hard-earned and very impressive title,” Alec agrees, planting a kiss in her hair.

She giggles, muffled into his shoulder. “No we would not.”

He reaches over and switches off the lamp on his bedside table. She’s too comfortable to extricate herself from him and switch off hers.

“Positively knackered,” she says with a yawn.

He slides down from the headboard and settles into his pillow, keeping his arms tight around her.

“_Her_,” Ellie murmurs suddenly.

“Hm?” His eyes are closed. 

“_Her _hard-earned and very impressive title.” She snuggles him impossibly closer, throwing a leg over him. This position he’s gotten quite used to. She’s always restless until she comes to it.

He smiles, eyes still closed. “Her, then,” he amends, quite willingly, running a warm hand up and down her spine, lulling them both to sleep.

“I love you,” she mumbles into his chest.

He smiles into her hair, planting another kiss there. “Love you.”

And as if the words spoken out loud give them permission, they’re both instantly asleep.

* 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this'll actually be three chapters, because I had too much fun and got carried away! The every day stuff really just gets me.

For the few first months of their relationship, Ellie was the early riser between the two. Now that she’s pregnant, she can’t get enough sleep. She’s out cold until her morning sickness wakes her up. Alec has been getting up with Fred most often these days. He’s five now (and will never let you forget it) and sleeps until about 7am, mercifully. This morning, as he’s been doing for the last couple weeks, Alec sets a vibrating mobile alarm for 6:55 so that he can catch Fred before he comes crashing into their bedroom and wakes Ellie up. She’s carrying his child and spends half the day sick to her stomach, the least he can do is let her sleep.

Alec is in the master bathroom brushing his teeth when the bedroom door creaks open, followed by tiny padded footsteps. He moves swiftly into the bedroom just as Fred’s about to crawl up onto the mattress and picks the child up, swinging him around in his arms. Caught him just in time. Fred giggles and Alec carries him into the hallway, placing him down only once the door is closed behind them and he no longer has access to Ellie.

“I wanna wake Mumma up.” 

“You know the rules, lad,” Alec says simply, leading Fred down the stairs. “We let Mumma sleep. Breakfast is Fred and Alec time.” 

Fred grins up at him. “Yeah! Boys time!” He thinks about it. “But no Tom. Tom is a meanie in the morning.” 

Alec nods. He can’t argue with that. “What shall we make this morning?”

Alec has found that occupying the child with actually making breakfast is the best way to keep him from waking everyone else unceremoniously.

“Bacon and eggs!” Fred exclaims as they enter the kitchen. “And BEANS.”

Alec chuckles, pulling various ingredients out of the fridge. Fred has recently become obsessed with beans. He puts the kettle on as Fred drags a kitchen chair over to the counter and climbs onto it. This has become their routine.

By 7:30, Daisy has joined them in the kitchen in her pyjamas. Alec pours her a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea. She sits at the table, scrolling on her mobile, as Alec and Fred do their cooking. Around 7:35, Tom makes an entrance, messy-haired and squinting, as though he hasn’t quite shed himself of sleep yet. 

“Smell bacon,” he mumbles, then he sits at the table across from Daisy and lays his head on the surface. Alec helps Fred pour him a glass of orange juice, and the younger brother anxiously brings it over to him.

“Thanks,” Tom mumbles again, and frowns at how hard Fred is grinning at him. “Go away now.”

Fred scurries back over to the chair and helps Alec plate all the bacon and eggs they’ve made.

Alec doesn’t notice Ellie enter the kitchen, and is unaware of her presence until he feels her behind him, slipping her arms around his waist. “Morning.”

He smiles at the feel of her, the lovely smell of her. “Mornin’, lass.” She squeezes him tighter when he calls her _lass_. “Up early.”

“Bacon,” she murmurs against his back in response, and he thinks she sounds remarkably like Tom.

“Mumma, we made BEANS too,” Fred informs her, too loudly. Daisy and Tom both groan. Alec wonders why it is that teenagers always seem hungover in the morning.

“So you did, my little love, so you did.” Ellie peeks over at the pot on the stove, then kisses the top of Fred’s head.

Alec turns around in her arms and she looks up at him, smiling sleepily. He kisses her.

Daisy and Tom groan at the same time. “_Stop_.”

“But we’ve only just _started_,” Alec complains, mocking them.

Fred tugs on Ellie’s t-shirt, looking up at her with the same face she’s just looked up at Alec with. He feels a warm tingle when he makes the connection. “Kiss Fred instead!” Fred exclaims, clearly very pleased with himself.

Ellie gasps. “Kiss Fred instead!” She sweeps him up into her arms and starts kissing him all over until she’s holding him upside down. Fred is giggling uncontrollably. Ellie looks over at Alec. “What d’ya think, love, should we hang him outside on the clothesline?”

“No!” Fred cries out in fits of laughter.

Tom groans into his orange juice. Alec puts a plate of bacon and eggs in front of him and he perks up a bit.

“We’ll put him up in a tree like a monkey,” Alec adds. “Or let him hang upside down like a bat.”

“I’m a bat!” Fred exclaims.

Alec puts a plate of bacon, eggs, and beans in front of Daisy. She perks up too and immediately digs in. 

“Thought bats only come out at night…” Ellie says, feigning curiosity.

“I’m a morning bat,” Fred explains matter-of-factly.

Alec reaches for him, pulling him upright and holding him at his hip. He’s starting to get too big for this now, and he can tell from the look on Ellie’s face she is thinking exactly that, a bit wistfully. He puts Fred down, and Fred drags his chair back over to the table and sits in it expectantly. 

“Beans please!” He holds up his fork and spoon.

Alec prepares him a plate.

“Have to eat your eggs too,” Ellie says, as Alec hands him a plate with everything on it. “Only get more beans once you’ve eaten your eggs.”

Fred pouts and begins shoveling beans into his mouth. Alec hands Ellie a cup of tea.

“Ta,” she says, bringing the mug to her lips. “Thanks for fixing breakfast.”

He grabs his mug and sips it as well. They both stand leaning against the counter, quietly content for a moment. 

He glances over at her. “You feel up to eating?”

“Maybe in a while,” she replies. “Bit queasy but less than usual, no runnin’ to the loo for me yet.”

“Mm, that’s progress.” He slips an arm around her shoulders, then leans over to whisper in her ear. “Maybe she’ll start lettin’ you sleep til eight from now on.” He kisses her shoulder. 

She leans into him, sipping her tea, and watching the kids devour their breakfast. “God they’re so lovely and quiet whenever there’s food on the table.”

“Can hear you,” Tom says, with a mouthful of bacon. “Not lovely and _deaf_.”

Alec and Ellie exchange amused glances and try to keep themselves from laughing. Then Ellie goes a bit green.

“Loo?” He assumes.

She nods, covers her mouth, and darts out of the room. He just leans back against the counter and sips his tea. The kids are all staring at the door.

“Why’s she keep doin’ that?” Daisy questions.

“Mumma sick again?” Fred drops a piece of egg on the floor. Probably intentionally.

“Yeah cause she hates BEANS,” Tom retorts, shoveling bacon in his mouth.

Though he’s not looking forward to it in any way, he is relieved to know that tonight he and Ellie will finally tell them. 

They arrive at work a bit later than Jenkinson asked them to. Alec suspects Jenkinson has started asking them to be there fifteen minutes earlier than she actually needs them, now that the reality of her two best detectives sharing three kids among them has set in. She’s a smart lady. Thus she doesn’t seem bothered when they finally scramble in.

“Sorry we’re late,” Ellie says. Alec just shrugs. He can see Jenkinson’s not bothered so he’s not going to allow himself any anxiety over it.

Jenkinson is raising an eyebrow at her. “Got…egg, is it? In your hair.”

“Bloody hell, Fred. ” Her hands dart up to her hair until she finds it, then she turns to glare at Alec. “Didn’t think to tell me?”

Alec is working very hard to combat a smile as he shrugs and holds up his hands as if he hasn’t the faintest idea. Jenkinson can see this and sighs heavily. Though secretly she might be a little tickled to see Alec Hardy so happy. Even if he’s trying not to show it to her.

“Sorry,” Ellie says to Jenkinson. “Five-year-olds. You know.”

She doesn’t. 

She hands them a box of files. Remnants of a cold case where it is suspected that new evidence has come to light. Alec picks up the heavy box after Jenkinson briefs them, and Ellie follows him out of her office.

“Some help you are,” Ellie growls at him, still not over the egg-in-hair incident.

He smiles again, thoroughly amused by himself.

“Stop smiling, you wanker.”

“Can’t help it, I love a cold case,” he says, leading them into his office.

“No you bloody don’t, you hate a cold case.” She closes the door behind them, and they both sit on the couch with the box between them. “You just like watching me squirm.”

“Guilty,” Alec admits. “Jenkinson really gets under your skin. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

He notes her going green again. “Scuse me.” She runs out of his office.

He gets up and goes to the breakroom to make them both a cuppa. When he returns with two mugs, she’s sitting, sifting through the box like she never left. He hands her one of them and sits down beside her. 

“Blimey, this one’s got an entire decade on us,” she says, looking at the files.

“Do you remember it?”

“A bit. Think it happened around the first time Mum got sick so I would’ve been fairly useless.”

They’re holed up in his office for quite awhile, reading up on the case, discussing various theories, creating piles on his desk. They argue constantly, but somehow are perfectly in sync. They’ve gotten very, very, _very _good at doing this together, it’s just like breathing.

Early in the afternoon, DC Harford asks Ellie to go on a shout with her. Alec has started to get a bit nervous about her going out on calls without him now that she’s pregnant, and especially given that no one else _knows _she’s pregnant. But it’s a domestic disturbance, and Ellie and Katie have started to develop a skill for dealing with these together, accidentally. Alec knows there will be uniform with them and that sending out detectives is really just to cover their own hide, but he’ll never forget the domestic disturbance that landed her in the hospital. Granted, with eleven stitches, but still. Eleven stitches _now_, now that she’s almost two months pregnant, have a good deal more of an impact.

But he can’t tell her no. He would never tell her no. He may be her boss but at this point it’s just a title. Ellie’s going to do exactly what she wants to do, and all he can do is trust her judgment. Which he does.

So she runs out with Harford and Alec tries to concentrate on the cold case all the while checking his mobile constantly. He’s kept his office door open only so he can listen for them when they come back, and when he hears Harford call Ellie’s name, he sits upright.

“Just need a few minutes!” Ellie calls back to her.

Alec gets up at the commotion and exits his office in search of her. He finds Ellie headed straight to the loo with Katie trailing behind her. It’s a little late in the day for her to still be suffering from morning sickness, and she’s not the least bit green. Quite the opposite in fact. He darts out so that she’ll run right into him. And she does. 

“Oh, christ, thank god, all right.” She grabs his hand and drags him away. Katie stops following her and stands where she is. Ellie pulls him back into his office and slams the door shut.

Alec is a bit dumbfounded. “What on earth are you – “

“Better you than me,” she says hurriedly, dragging him away from the door.

She moves to stand against the wall and immediately starts unfastening her trousers. He watches her with great fascination until she grabs his hand and shoves it into her knickers.

“_Christ_,” he mutters, observing her flushed cheeks and desperate eyes. “What were you gonna do, take yourself to the loo and – “

“Saw your door was open, assumed you’d gone out,” she explains quickly, words tumbling over words.

It’s true. He’s been reclusive lately, and an open door typically means an empty office altogether.

“But – “ He palms her and _feels _just how desperate she must be. “Jesus, El.” 

“Oh, just do the thing, will you,” she demands.

He leans against her and slips a finger inside her. Her moan is _guttural _and he hopes to god no one is standing outside the door. These little office trysts brought on by her hormones are as nerve-wracking for him as they are thrilling. As exciting as it is to touch her and/or be touched by her at work, the idea that someone might _know _makes him want to melt into the ground and never rematerialize. He knows he has to make the most of these moments, of Insatiable Ellie, because just as her hormones can make her hypersexualized, they can also do the opposite. With no warning. So he’ll do whatever she wants him to do to her, and let her do whatever she wants to do to _him_, in the hopes of not tempting the wrath of the hormone gods, who giveth and who also taketh away.

He kisses her as he slips another finger inside her, but she doesn’t seem to be much interested in kissing. “Yeah, yeah, just like that,” she instructs him. “_Ahhh_, okay, yes.”

It’s not often she offers him _commentary _on his moves and at first it’s hard not to laugh, and then it turns him on unbearably. He buries his head in her neck and she grips his shoulder encouragingly. “_Fuck_,” she exhales, bucking into his hand. He thinks of her having herself off just in the loo without him and finds himself getting hard at the thought. He keeps fucking her with her fingers and rubs his hard length against her. He thinks, with some dismay, that he’ll have to find a way to deal with _that _afterwards. 

“What's brought it on,” he asks, bringing his lips to her ear and nipping at her earlobe. This is a question he asks sometimes when she gets this way, and he’s waiting for the Reverend Paul at a party sent her running to the loo. He finds it both incredibly arousing and also deeply upsetting to him on a personal level. 

“What,” she breathes back, and he knows he’s going to lose her soon. 

“What did it to you this time,” he asks again, knowing the question is barely coherent.

“On the way back – _yes, fuck _– we drove past that…pub down the coastal road near Exmouth,” she answers painstakingly. “_Alec_.”

Ah yes. The pub where he’d shagged her in the loo early on in their relationship. He’s sensing a theme here. The memory of that particular tryst would have him needing to get himself off too. As it’s doing now. Damn it all.

“El, can you – “ With his free hand, he finds _her _hand and guides it to the bulge in his trousers.

“_Oh_,” she says, coy and breathless, as if she hadn’t noticed. “Right, then, okay.” 

She unzips him and slips her hand past the waistband of his briefs, and he realizes this is the second day in a row they’ve done this. Yesterday she’d gone down on him at his desk and now... 

They are truly tempting fate here, he knows. But, he supposes, he’d rather tempt the fate here than the fate of the hormone gods. He doesn’t want to think what his life will be like if she loses her sex drive, even for a short time.

Her fingers close around his shaft and he breathes out through gritted teeth to keep from moaning too loudly. He sucks on her neck, bucking his hips into her, trying to, at the same time, stay concentrated on rubbing her clit. She’s close already – frankly she’s been close from the second he touched her – and he’s impressed by her ability to find rhythm as she tugs at him. 

“Fuck, Ellie,” he whispers into her neck, then thrusts a third finger into her, almost as a reward.

She bangs her head back against the wall as she comes. “Oh my _god_, son of a cunt.”

God, he _loves_ when she does that. Absolutely bloody _adores _foul-mouthed Ellie. “Oh, christ, mother_fucker._” That’s gotten him to the edge now too.

“El, I’m gonna – “

“Uh huh.” She nods just barely, upping her ministrations on him as she rides out the rest of her own orgasm.

He bites down hard on her shoulder as he comes, gripping her hip with his free hand, and she nearly cries out in pain. “Good christ, Ellie.” She tugs at him gently until he’s through, and then they both take a few moments just to breathe, her back flat against the wall and him leaning all his weight against her.

“Well,” he exhales. “That’s that done.”

She chuckles into his shoulder. “You beautiful blighter, you.”

“You love me,” he says confidently.

“I do.”

They both remove their respective hands from the other's naughty bits, and Alec steps over to his desk and grabs a couple napkins for them both.

“Shall I consider this a daily occurrence now?” He asks cheekily as he wipes his hands.

“Bollocks, I hope not, we’ll never get anything done again,” Ellie replies, doing the same. “This is why they don’t like for partners to become _partners_.”

“Think it’s more that they inevitably split up and ruin the lives of everyone in their department with their general nastiness toward each other.”

Ellie’s eyes widen a bit and she winces. “Right. Forgot you’ve lived that, haven’t you.”

Alec grunts at the unpleasant memory, and zips himself up. She does the same.

“’s not inevitable, by the way,” she says then, causing him to look at her a bit apologetically.

“Course not, no, sorry,” he says quickly. He kisses her. “Sorry.”

“No need.” Ellie collapses onto his couch, and he follows her there. Without discussing it it’s clear that they, um, need a minute before diving right back into case files. “You do that with her?”

He gives her a puzzled look. “What, get each other off in my office?” Ellie nods. “No.”

“More professional than us, then.” She shrugs helplessly.

“Professionals aren’t married to their bosses and then go fuck their colleagues.”

“Oh, all right now, don’t start that,” she warns him. “Anyway speaking from experience it’s _much _more fun shagging your boss than shagging your colleague.”

He frowns at her, and she realizes what she’s just said. “When’ve you shagged a colleague!”

She goes red and makes a face. He’s busted her. “Just…” She waves it off. “One of the uniform, just before you came back. Only once or twice.”

He’s frowning even harder. “Well which is it, once or twice, they’re very different, one is in fact 100% more than the other.”

“_Alec_.”

He’s frowning so hard now she worries he might hurt himself. “Once or twice?” He demands again.

She sighs. “…One and a half maybe.” She tries not to laugh at his dubious eyebrow raise. “One shag, one…fumble in the car.”

“Whose car.”

Her turn to frown now. “Stop it.”

“Whose _car_,” he repeats.

“You’ve not even asked me _who it was _but you’re desperate to know whose bloody car?!”

He folds his arms across his chest and he looks like the man she met for the first time all those years ago. Who, unfortunately, she found awfully sexy. 

“Alec, it doesn’t matter.” She leans over and kisses his cheek. “I was lonely. You were gone. Was just desperate for a shag. Better him than you honestly.”

“What’s that mean?” His face is like a grumpy child’s.

“It _means_…” She places an affectionate hand on his thigh and smoothes out his hair with her other hand. “That you’re more than just a desperate shag. Obviously. And if I’d done it with you then, we might not be where we are _now_.”

He sighs, relenting. He knows she’s slept with a few people in between Joe and himself. He’s always known it, it’s come up casually from time to time, but they’ve never discussed it in detail.

“You’d have used me,” he says, grumpy but understanding her.

“Like a ruddy prostitute,” she confirms.

He thinks about it. “Don’t think I’d make a great prostitute, me.”

Her eyes sparkle suddenly. “Oh I disagree.”

Instead of opting to unpack that statement, he just smiles a bit and kisses her.

“Thanks for having me off,” she says, happily, like a delighted little girl.

“Right back at you." 

He kisses her again.

“Back to work?” She suggests.

He nods, and thinks to himself, this is what love is. A shag one minute, a fight the next, an exchange of smiles and affection, and then on with the day. He is, in fact, a very lucky man.

*


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was one of the most difficult things I've written in a while. Hope you like it.
> 
> And please let me know you're still into this series if you're still into this series! I feel like the interest in it is waning a bit. Your comments/thoughts definitely have an impact on my writing!

After work, Ellie drops Alec off at home and they divide and conquer. He starts dinner – a shepherd’s pie or some such they all like – and she goes off to pick up Fred from Lucy’s, Tom from football practice, and Daisy from a mate’s. They all beg her to stop so they can pick up Nando’s, but Ellie refuses, because “Alec’s cooking.” Much as they like his cooking – especially compared to hers – they beg for takeaway any chance they get and it drives Ellie bonkers. Why keep asking for something when you know the answer’s going to be no? It’s really the one thing that truly maddens her about children.

By the time the car pulls into the drive, Ellie is annoyed and cranky. The kids pour into the house and each run off in different directions. None of them goes to say hello to Alec in the kitchen. Ellie pops her head in.

“Going up to change,” she says.

“Not one of them says hello,” he complains. “Not one.”

“Consider yourself lucky. They’re all cranky this evening and now I’m cranky.”

She pops out again and heads upstairs. Alec pops dinner into the oven and thinks this does not bode well for their pending after-dinner conversation.

That done, Alec decides to check in on each of them respectively. He knocks on Tom’s closed door first. It takes a few knocks for the teenager to open the door, headphones around his neck.

“Yeah?”

“Just sayin' hello.”

Tom stares at him.

“Right. Good day then?”

“You’re just going to make me talk about it at dinner, do we have to talk about it now too?” Tom replies sullenly.

“Right then,” Alec says, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Dinner in twenty.”

“Cool.”

Alec steps out and Tom quickly shuts the door. Daisy’s next. The door is slightly ajar. He raps lightly on it. “Daiz?”

“Come in.”

She’s sitting on her bed with her laptop, presumably doing schoolwork. That’s what he’s going to go with anyway. 

“All right, love?”

“Yeah, fine, Dad. You?”

“Fine, fine.” He walks over to her bed. “Just checkin’ in on ya.”

“That shepherd’s pie I smell?”

“It is.” He sits down on the edge of the mattress.

“Bless you, I’m starved.” She glances at something on her laptop, then looks back at him. “Mind if I go home this weekend?”

He narrows his eyes. “You are home.”

“Sorry, to Mum’s, I mean.”

“…Is that where you consider home?”

Daisy clearly did not expect this to turn into A Conversation. “Dunno, doesn’t matter really. Just been movin’ around quite a bit lately, eh? Mum’s, then our place here, now Ellie’s."

He nods solemnly. “Right. That _is _a lot of change.”

Daisy sighs. “It’s not a problem, Dad, don’t turn it into a thing, yeah? I’m good.”

“You know this is as much our place as it is – “

“Yeah, I know,” she answers, then hesitates. “Is a bit weird though. That, you know, her….husband or whatever used to live here. Especially…considering.”

Alec scratches his head and nods again. “I’m workin’ on it.” 

“…so we’re gonna move again?” 

He cracks a smile. “Dunno, Daiz. It’s a bit of a sore subject for Ellie. This has been her home for a long time, but also…” 

“But also her husband the paedophile used to fuck her here.”

Alec is _stunned_. “Oi, Daisy.”

“Sorry.” And it’s clear from the look on her face that she really is. “I didn’t – sorry. That wasn’t meant to be, like, a slight against Ellie or anythin’. It’s just that, you know. Sometimes I feel a bit…odd living in a paedophile’s house.”

“It’s _Ellie’s _house.”

Daisy shrugs. “Kind of.” 

“And Joe…” Alec stops himself when he realizes he was about to defend Joe. To downplay his actions. He shakes out of it. That’s clearly not the way to go. “Right, you’re right. I do hear you. And I’m doin’ m’best.”

“Cool. So can I go to Mum’s at the weekend?”

“If you like.”

He pats her knee. “All right then. Dinner in fifteen.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

He leaves her to her laptop and closes the door just as much as it had been when he came to it.

Next up is Fred’s room. His door is wide open. Alec tiptoes in and finds the five-year-old in his _Star Wars _costume fighting the air with a plastic lightsaber.

“’lo there, lad.”

“Alec!” Fred drops the lightsaber and rushes to Alec, hugging his legs. Alec suspects he will never get tired of that.

“I’m being Kylo, want to be Han?”

“Love to, but ‘m in the middle of making our supper.” He ruffles Fred’s hair.

“Okay.” Fred picks up his lightsaber again. “After?” 

Alec shifts a bit uncomfortably when he remembers that _after _Fred’s little life is going to feel very different to him and the last thing he’ll want to do is play Star Wars.

“Aye, after,” Alec agrees. What’s the harm. “Gonna go check on your mum. Dinner soon, eh?”

Fred has already started fighting the air again with his lightsaber. Alec smiles to himself and leaves the room. He then heads up to the attic and the master bedroom. Such as it is anyway. He finds Ellie changed into leggings and a longish jumper lying flat on the bed, staring at her mobile, which she holds up above her face.

“All right?” She says, merely acknowledging his presence while clearly engrossed in something on her phone.

He doesn’t respond, doesn’t need to, just gets right to changing out of his work clothes as well. Into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Which he suspects will get her attention before long. If it were up to her, he’d never wear anything else.

“What’re you making?” She asks casually, scrolling. 

“Shepherd’s pie.”

She turns to look at him with a distinct expression of glee on her face. “Oh, I love you.” She notices what he’s wearing. “And _oh_, I _love _you.”

He grins boyishly before flopping down on the bed beside her. He’s flat on his back, and she turns on her side to face him. She throws an arm over his waist and kisses his cheek.

“You see the kids?”

“Tom’s in a right foul mood,” he replies.

She sighs. “More and more these days.”

“Reckon I was the same at fourteen,” he assures her. 

She smirks. “And look how you turned out.”

He feigns offense. “Turned out to be the handsome, thoughtful bugger you’ve taken into your bed. Thank you very much.” 

“Ah, but ‘by this light I take thee for pity.’” He blinks at her. She shrugs. “The one line I remember from _Much Ado_.”

“_Shakespeare_,” Alec practically growls.

“I take thee for pity, Alec Hardy,” she repeats with manufactured conviction.

“And I take thee for the way your arse looks in those leggings,” he replies smarmily. 

“You can’t even see it right now!”

“No, but I know from memory.” He wiggles his eyebrows at her.

She whacks his shoulder. “Oh, come off it.”

“Etched forever in my mind,” he says, gesturing above him as if he can see it now.

She rolls her eyes. “When’s dinner?”

“Bout ten.”

“Ooh, good, I can watch this hilarious cat montage video,” she replies. “Better be hilarious, anyway, or I’ll torture Lucy with Oxfam ads.”

She rolls over onto her stomach, propped up on her elbows to look at her mobile. Alec takes this time to appreciate her arse in those leggings. She doesn’t notice until he reaches over and grabs at it.

“Oi!” She looks back over her shoulder. “Haven’t you had enough for one day?”

“Of you?” He scoffs. “Not a chance, Miller.”

She shakes her head. “Cheeky.”

“Speaking of _cheeky_…” He gives her arse a little slap.

Her jaw drops, feigning surprise. “Ought to have a little respect for your…oh, what do they call it in America. Your _baby mama_.”

His eyes widen, after a beat he starts laughing uncontrollably. He leans his forehead on her back as he laughs, and she starts too, dropping her head onto the mattress.

Fred appears in the doorway. “Alec!”

They both look up, trying to rein in their laughter.

“The kitchen is beeping!” 

Ah, the oven timer. Alec gives her arse a quick squeeze then hops up off the bed, dashing out of the room.

Dinner is fairly quiet. All five of them are starving, and shepherd’s pie is one of Alec’s specialties so they waste no time in devouring it. Ellie and Alec, like the very parenty parents they are, fire constant questions at the children, who field them only begrudgingly, like victims of water torture. When they’re all through, Daisy and Tom are instructed to do the washing up, while Ellie gives Fred a bath. Alec allows himself a break, pouring himself a glass of scotch and sitting down in the living room.

It’s nearing 7:30 when they reconvene. Ellie brings Fred down in his pyjamas, and in the living room Daisy and Tom are now playing video games.

“All right, switch it off,” Alec requests of the two teenagers. “Time for a little meeting.”

Daisy looks at him, purely disgusted. “A _what_?”

“A…family meeting. Or what have you.” Alec looks at Ellie for help, but she’s making a cringey face.

“Important meeting!” Fred exclaims, though he has no idea what that means.

He takes a seat with Daisy and his brother on the couch, wanting to feel like he’s a part of things. Ellie and Alec sit on the loveseat adjacent to them.

“What’s happening?” Daisy asks. “Are we moving again?”

Tom leans back and folds his arms across his chest, trying very hard not to look worried. “You two splitting up?”

Fred looks at his brother, then looks at Ellie and Alec in horror, tears immediately filling his eyes. “Alec, are you going away?”

“What!” Daisy cries. “You’re not splitting up, are you?”

The two adults both feel like their hearts have shattered and escaped their respective chests.

“Nooooo. No, no, no,” Ellie insists fervently.

“Course not,” Alec adds, as if the idea of it is purely absurd and will not be entertained under any circumstances. “Nothing like that.”

“Will you ever?” Fred asks, now quite filled with fear.

“Oh, love.” Ellie leans forward to look him in the eyes. “Don’t you worry about that now, all right?”

Fred looks at Alec, needing him to corroborate her response.

“Not goin’ anywhere, lad,” Alec assures him. “Promise you that.”

“So, what then?” Tom questions.

Alec and Ellie exchange glances. Despite making the plan to have this conversation, neither of them has actually prepared anything and they’ve barely spoken about it together at all. In their locked gaze, they both seem to be telling the other with their eyes, _you tell them. _

“Uh.” Alec looks at Ellie.

“Um.” Ellie looks at Alec.

They both exhale loudly.

“Oh my god _what_,” Daisy demands impatiently.

Alec takes a deep breath, acknowledging Ellie’s pleading eyes. He reaches over and interlaces his fingers with hers, feels her relax a little in his grasp.

He looks at the kids, wishing he could look directly at all three of them at once. 

“We’re pregnant,” he says finally.

Daisy’s jaw drops. Fred is blinking rapidly. Tom is glaring at them.

“_Who’s _pregnant,” Tom says, suddenly sounding like a young man.

“I am, love,” Ellie pipes up, squeezing Alec’s hand tightly to give herself comfort.

Daisy gasps. “You are?!”

Fred is squirming restlessly and with frustration. “What’s pregnant!”

Alec thinks Ellie might well break a few bones in his hand she’s squeezing it so hard.

“We’re having a baby, my sweet,” Ellie tells him softly.

Fred looks positively gobsmacked. “A baby,” he repeats, as if trying to remind himself what a baby is.

Tom is full on scowling now. “But you’re not even married.”

“…No,” Ellie agrees patiently. “We’re not.”

“A _baby_,” Daisy exhales, glancing around as if looking for confirmation somewhere, somehow.

Tom gets up, then sits back down again of his own accord. Ellie thinks back on the last time Tom had to endure a conversation like this. He was ten years old when Ellie and Joe sat him down to announce they she was pregnant with Fred. He hadn’t taken it well, but he hadn’t been _angry_. He’d just been confused and concerned more than anything else. He’d been the only child for so long and couldn’t understand why they would do such a thing. He’d felt like he wasn’t enough.

“Like a real baby?” Fred says quietly, trying to wrap his head around even the barest notion of it. 

“’s what you deserve,” Tom says. “All that bloody shaggin’ you do. Thought you at least had the good sense to be on birth control though.”

Ellie is horrified. But totally taken off-guard. “I…_was_, but…”

“Can’t just act like sodding adults, can you,” Tom continues. “_Old _adults.”

Ellie sits up straight, glowering at her older son. “_Thomas Miller_.”

Daisy seems to not hear Tom at all. She is so thoroughly in her own thoughts. “Did you want to? I mean, were you…tryin’ to…”

“Didn’t plan it, darlin’,” Alec replies. “Snuck up on us a bit.”

Tom is shaking his head. “But that’s not how it works, is it? Babies don’t just sneak up on you, you have to _do _something to get them.”

“There are…” Ellie stammers. “Accidents _happen_, love. It’s not…things don’t always…turn out the way you…there are accidents. Just like with Fred.”

Fred’s little eyes widen beyond belief and Ellie goes beet red, realizing what she’s said.

“Like what with Fred?!” Fred asks. “I’m an accident?” His little lip is trembling.

Ellie all but leaps out of her chair to reach for him, but Fred curls into Daisy and doesn’t look at her. “Oh, my sweet love, no. No, no, no.”

“_Yes_,” Tom says, as if that’s obvious.

“No!” Ellie insists, glaring at her older child.

“Yes, he was, you said so! You said so then! It was just like this except different because it was Dad!”

All five of them are _frozen _at the mention of Joe, at the mention of Joe being referred to as _Dad_, at the ever so _slight _tone of familiarity and affection that is imbued into the title. _Dad_.

Ellie’s insides are screaming, her bones are breaking, skin crawling, she wants to flee the room and lock herself in a closet, but she _can’t_. Her children are in pain and it’s the worst thing in the world, suddenly, but she can’t leave. She has to be their rock now.

Alec’s eyes are boring into her, searching her rapidly changing expression for signs of whether or not she’s all right, for an idea of what she needs him to do, how he can help. But there are no clues left for him. Even Daisy is flummoxed.

“Tom.” Ellie leans forward, trying to get Tom to meet her eyes. “Sweetheart, it wasn’t…” But Tom won’t look at her. She turns to Fred, who is clinging onto Daisy’s arm. “You were so wanted, my love. We were _so happy_, so in love with you from the very first moment we knew.” 

Alec pulls her hands into his lap, and brings his other hand to it so that it’s clasped between both of his. He does not know what to do.

“You and Dad,” Fred says. 

Alec and Ellie remember only one time Fred’s mentioned his father, and the child had done it with so much shocking clarity and acceptance that it had absolutely _broken _Ellie at the time.

Now again, Ellie’s eyes are so filled with tears she can barely see, but she’s so determined not to cry. She channels her emotions into squeezing Alec’s hand like a stress ball. He endures the pain valiantly.

“Dad and I were so happy,” she repeats, trying desperately to toe the line between assuring Fred of the truth with all her might and not letting herself remember that time in her life too strongly. She hadn’t prepared herself for this. Hadn’t prepared for the past to figure in so keenly to this moment of her present.

“Dad,” Fred repeats again, in a bit of a daze.

“It was just like this.” Tom looks at his brother, as if he’s trying to appeal to him. Then he looks back at Ellie. “You and Dad were just like this. You were in _love_ then. You were pregnant and you didn’t plan it and you were _happy_.” He looks at Fred again. “They _were _happy, Fred. Mean it. They really were.”

Fred hides his face behind Daisy.

Ellie is swallowing hard and biting the inside of her cheek, anything to keep her from bursting into tears. She wants to envelope both her boys in her arms, but she can see plainly that there’s no way either of them will let her. 

“Tom, we can…” She wipes away the moisture gathering underneath her eyes. “We can talk about this, but let’s…can we…one thing at a time, eh?”

“Dunno what that means,” Tom answers. But he goes quiet.

They all go quiet.

And then Daisy again. “You’re keeping it?”

“What?” Alec asks.

“You’re…you know, you’re _havin’ _the baby.”

“Course we are, darlin’,” Alec says, frowning in confusion at the question. “We’re over the moon.”

“Really?” The question is sincere, but it frightens Alec that she’s so concerned.

“Really, love.”

“But you haven’t even been together that long,” Tom says, and for the first time in this conversation it looks like he’s actually trying to understand. “How do you even know this – whole thing will last?”

Alec sits up straight, confidently. “Cause this is it for me, Tom,” he answers, as sincere as he’s ever been. “Your mum is…there’s no one else. It’s her or nothing.”

He’s already got her hand in both of his, so she reaches out with her free hand to squeeze his thigh.

“But didn’t you feel like that with Mum?” Daisy asks.

Wordlessly, both Alec and Ellie realize what they’ve done wrong here. They moved in together, merged their families into one, and did so without actually explaining to them what it meant. Why it was so important. Why it it was _different_. This seems to be key, especially to the two older children, who have already been so burned by their parents’ failed marriages. _Why is it different than before? _It’s their own bloody fault for not addressing it sooner.

Alec exhales. “Thought I did, Daiz. At the time. But it’s one of those things where you don’t know until you know,” he attempts to explain. “I’ve never had this before. What I have with Ellie.”

Tom shifts around a bit. Ellie’s watching him like a hawk.

“So you’re never gonna leave her,” Tom says, eyes skeptical and questioning. 

“No,” Alec responds, firmly and without hesitation. “’m not.”

When Ellie blinks, a few stray tears fall out of her eyes and roll down her cheeks. Her eyes are both red and shining.

Tom is testing him, clearly. “Not even when she pisses you off?”

Alec is grateful to find that his lips are curling into a smirk. “She pisses me off all the bloody time, lad. I’m still here.”

Under her breath she whispers, “Wanker.”

There’s quiet for a moment until Fred’s tiny head pops out again from behind Daisy. “Did you have to have a baby because _I’m _not a baby anymore?”

Ellie smiles at him, wet eyes glistening. “You’re always my baby, little one.”

“I’m _big._” Fred shakes his head rapidly, though it’s clear from the look on his face that this was in fact _exactly _what he wanted to hear and Ellie knows it.

“Yes, you are,” Ellie agrees, voice trembling.

Fred clambers off of the couch and crawls up onto Ellie’s lap, burying himself against her. She wraps her arms around him, holding him as tightly as possible, and kisses the top of his head. She feels like maybe she’s never been more grateful for anything in her life as she is for her sweet son in this moment.

“So this is why you’ve been retching all the time,” Daisy says to Ellie finally, the thought just occurring to her.

Alec nods. “This is why.”

“How long’ve you known?”

He thinks back. “Three weeks or so. Not long.”

There’s a bit of quiet again as they all get long in their thoughts. Ellie is rocking Fred back and forth as he clings to her, kissing his head over and over. Alec thinks he might cry watching them, but he doesn’t. He knows the older children could not handle that, and he doesn’t want them to have to try.

“So,” Daisy speaks up again. “You’re not. Like. Starting another family. Or whatever.” Alec is immediately frowning at the thought. “I mean this isn’t like, the first of many.”

Ellie looks up immediately at that. “_No_.”

Alec would laugh if the mood wasn’t so somber. 

“No, love,” he replies. “I imagine we’ll be quite content with this one being the last of you. We’re old, you know.”

He’s hoping to make his daughter smile, and she _almost _does.

“So you didn’t want this. Right?” Tom says, trying to make sense of it once and for all. “Like you didn’t stop and think, we’re missing something. You didn’t set out to do this.”

“Tom.” Ellie is firm but kind. “Like we told you. It was unplanned. We weren’t _trying _to have a baby. It just happened. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t thrilled about it.”

Daisy and Tom both seem to be nodding slowly together in unison. Fred squirms a bit, then lifts his head from where he’s been resting against her breasts to look up at her.

“How do you have a baby when you don’t mean to?” He wonders innocently. “I thought you ask the doctor for a baby and if he likes you he gives you one.”

Daisy snickers and even Tom shows a hint of a smile.

“Well,” Ellie says calmly, before glancing over at Alec. She takes a deep breath, knowing all eyes are on her. “Sometimes you fall in love. And when you’re in love _really, really _hard, when your feelings for someone are _really, really _big…sometimes that love is just so strong that it creates a whole _life_. And you might not know it, because love, especially at the beginning, can be so selfish that you don’t see everything you should. You only see the person you love. And then, when you’re not looking, you might find suddenly you’ve made baby. You didn’t mean to and you didn’t ask to, but you couldn’t help it, you see? Sometimes two people fall in love and their love is too big for just two people.” She strokes the boy’s face with the back of her hand. “Does that make sense?”

“No,” Tom snorts.

Daisy is smiling. And when Ellie looks over at Alec, he’s crying. She’d been scrambling and sweating and hadn’t intended for her answer to satisfy anyone but Fred – and even that seemed optimistic, given his stubborn and inquisitive nature. But Alec is crying – which, frankly, is _her _thing – and she’s wildly unprepared for it.

“’m sorry,” she whispers, almost just _mouths _to him, and feels truly awful. He hates to cry. And now he’s doing it in front of his daughter. She reaches out to touch _his _cheek now. “So sorry, love,” she whispers again.

Tom doesn’t seem to notice. He’s lost in his own brooding. Daisy doesn’t notice it at first, she’s quite distracted indeed, but then she looks at him with concern.

“Dad." 

“Yeah, love,” Alec answers, voice broken, looking only at Ellie.

“All right?” Daisy probes him.

He nods, still looking only at Ellie, who is starting to well up again because of it.

Fred is now sitting up in Ellie’s lap. “Love baby,” he says, as if he’s got it all figured out now.

“…Yes.” Ellie looks down at her son.

“I was a love baby?” Fred asks, his little doe eyes gazing up at her warily. “Tom was a love baby?”

Ellie nods very slowly, trying to sublimate the pain of her memories that are searing through her now. “Yes.” Her hand is shaking and Alec tries to ease it. “Yes, you were.”

“Can I go to bed now?” Tom asks suddenly. It’s not unkind and it’s not angry and that’s the most Alec and Ellie can ask for at the moment.

“…If you want to, ‘course,” Ellie replies.

“Fred, do you want to sleep with _me_?” Daisy asks.

Both Alec and Ellie are shocked. Fred all but leaps out of Ellie’s lap. “Fred sleeps with Daisy!”

Daisy stands up and takes Fred’s hand.

Alec looks at her. “You sure, Daiz?”

“Yeah,” Daisy replies with surprising ease. “Guess I better get good at this sort of thing.” She kisses Alec’s cheek. “Night, Dad.” Then she kisses Ellie’s cheek. “Night, El.”

“We’ll speak more in the morning?” Alec suggests.

Tom stands up, and it looks like he’s contemplating kissing them both as Daisy has, but decides against it.

“I love you,” Ellie says to Daisy unequivocally after she gets her cheek kiss. Alec beams.

“And I love _you_.” Ellie smooches Fred, smushing his little face.

Tom starts to walk past her. She puts her hand on his arm gently and stops him. “I love you so much, my lovely.” She squeezes his hand and is overwhelmed by how _old _he suddenly seems. “So much more than chocolate.” 

Tom nods, gives her a half-smile, and continues walking past her. Alec and Ellie turn and watch as all three kids ascend the stairs and slowly disappear. The _second _they’re all out of earshot, Ellie bursts into tears. They both knew she would. He puts an arm around her shoulders and pulls her close. “Shh, ‘s all right, my love.” He gives her a minute, then lifts them both to a standing position. “Come on. Upstairs.”

With a tight arm around her, and his other hand holding hers, he guides them both to the stairs. Once they make it to their bedroom, they close the door behind them, and Ellie clings to him, tears staining his jumper. He just holds her for as long as she needs, rocking them back and forth ever so slightly.

“That was bloody awful,” she says finally, voice muffled.

“I know.”

“Teenagers are…_awful._”

He nods, squeezing her.

“But you know what else?” He says finally.

She pulls back a bit to look up at him. He’s smiling down at her with wet eyes.

“Love baby.”

Ellie smiles and shakes her head, almost rolling her eyes. But Alec’s gaze remains steadfast.

“That was somethin’, El,” he says.

“That was _nonsense_.”

“Oh, no,” he replies. “’Sometimes two people fall in love and their love is too big for just two people’? Ellie, that was bloody _art_.”

“Oh, stop.” She hides her face in his chest. “’m sorry I made you cry. I know you hate that. I just didn’t know how to explain it to him any better.”

With a hand on her chin, he guides her to look up at him. “Think you said it perfectly.”

Her eyes fill up with tears again – what a mess she is – and he can’t keep from kissing her, and much harder than either of them might have expected. “I adore you,” he says against her lips, and at that she slips her arms around his neck and deepens the kiss. He places one hand at the small of her back and the other flat on her chest, feeling for her heartbeat the way she so often does with him. “My love is just too big.” He begins lightly kissing his way from her jawline to the spot underneath her earlobe where his touch makes her dizzy. He can feel that she’s still crying, her hot tears roll down her cheek and mix with the now-dried tears on his own. The hand on her back slides downward – he really does love her arse in those leggings – and the hand on her chest goes to her breast, just lightly stroking it for now.

“Alec.” The crack in her voice makes him think that she might stop him, that maybe her deeply felt emotions are leading her to a pint of ice cream and a bottle of wine while his are leading him to her. But then she’s touching his pacemaker scar through his t-shirt and pressing her hips against his, and he knows she needs him as badly as he needs her. She doesn’t need to say anything more.

He reaches down to grab her thighs with both hands, then lifts her up. She doesn’t even give herself the chance to react, as she might normally, to such a move, she just takes his face in her hands and kisses the hell out of him as he carries her over to the bed. He lays her down a bit more gently than he normally would, then stands where he is, looking down at her. She raises a leg and places her foot on his chest, smiling at him with wet eyes, and he runs his hands up and down her calf and thigh, just looking at her. Then he crawls onto the bed, sitting on his knees between her legs. He rubs the inside of her legging-clad thighs and watches the way her chest rises and falls in anticipation. With a reverant sigh, he leans down and pushes up the hem of her jumper so he can touch his lips to her bare abdomen. He’s got one hand grasping her hip and the other palm down on her pelvis holding her in place as he drags his lips across her stomach, stopping every so often to suck at her smooth skin. This has been a favorite spot of his on her since they started sleeping together, but now that she’s pregnant he could stay there for hours, overwhelmed by the dizzying thought of his child inside her.

She runs his fingers through her hair, and for once it seems she’s content to actually let him stay in that spot as long as he likes. Usually she’s a little more impatient; she’ll enjoy him there for a minute or so and then the anticipation of waiting for him to either travel up or travel down will get to her and she’ll beg him to make a decision. She massages his scalp, every so often pulling at a strand of hair. He groans happily into the skin between her belly button and her pelvis bone as he sucks a mark into it. 

Ellie shifts a bit to pull off her own jumper, and waits for him to notice. He hears the jumper hit the floor then glances up and, upon seeing her now clad only in her bra, begins to kiss his way up her body. He lingers between her breasts for awhile, quite intent on leaving a mark there too. She tugs at his t-shirt until he lets her lift it off him, and then he simply lies his head on her chest between her breasts, his ear against her skin, content to feel the rise of fall and her every breath. He lazily grasps at one breast, like an infant seeking comfort, and the tips of her fingers dance along his upper back and shoulders. They lie this way for a few minutes, both of their minds still reeling from what had happened downstairs.

“’m a bit in awe of you, you know,” Alec says finally, kissing the side of her breast but otherwise not moving.

“Can’t imagine why.” She traces the outline of his ear with his index finger, back and forth.

“You’re amazing with them, El,” he explains softly. “All of them. Your patience, your compassion, your empathy. I don’t have those things.”

She traces his jawline now, and wishes she could see his face. “Don’t think that’s true, love. You’re lovely to them. They respect you as well as adore you.” 

“Dunno.” His hand moves from her breast to travel up and down the side of her body, all the way down to her upper thigh. “Except that I am very, very lucky.”

“Mm, how so.” She closes her eyes, and though just minute ago she thought they were on the road to desperate, passionate sex, she now thinks she may just fall asleep like this. 

“To watch you with them. To have you be a mother to Daisy.” He’s careful to say _a_ mother, and not simply mother. “To have made one with you.”

She smiles, tangling her fingers in his hair now. “Bit flummoxing the universe would let us,” she says. “Right disasters we are and all.”

He doesn’t move his head still lying between her breasts, but his hand now starts to travel lower, beginning to trail along the side of her thigh. She shudders a bit.

“’s nice, isn’t it,” he says. “Gettin’ to do this.”

“What?” She opens her eyes, as if she’ll be able to hear him better that day. “Lie between my legs with your face in my tits?”

He laughs heartily and she can feel his hot breath on her skin. “Gettin’ to be in love this way.”

_Oh_. She hadn’t seen that coming, though perhaps given how sentimental he’s being, she should have. Her hand goes from his hair to his face, and her middle finger traces his lower lip, until he takes it in his mouth and sucks on it.

“_Is _nice,” she replies. “Now you mention it.” Her other arm drapes over his body. “It’s an odd thing to remember to be grateful for. Grateful for being in love.”

He shifts his body a bit then, using his arms and lift him up, then repositions himself to sit on his knees between her legs. He strokes her inner thighs with both hands, then strokes the hot, damp spot between her thighs, through her leggings. He enjoys teasing her this way, watching her face as she realizes what he’s about to do. She always seems both surprised and totally expectant at the same time.

“Going to take these off now,” he announces with an air of formality. He reaches for the waistband of the leggings.

“Bloody well wish you would,” she retorts, propping herself up on her elbows to watch him.

He strips off the leggings, pulling them down and peeling them off her. He takes a moment to breath her in, the heat of her, the scent, then begins stroking her through her knickers.

“Alec,” she exhales, dropping her head back on the bed. “Do remember that Insatiable Ellie does not have the same patience as before. She’s likely to come at the mere _thought _of your touch.” 

“She’s more than welcome to do so,” he answers, with a wicked smile, his accent thick. “I’ve got all night. I can make her come over and over until she begs me to leave her be.”

Just the _thought _of his relentlessness could make her come.

He’s about to peel off her knickers now when there’s a little knock at the door (more like a body walking right into the door) and a tiny face appears when it cracks open.

Alec reluctantly peels _himself _off Ellie and they both sit up to look at him.

“Wanna sleep with you.” Fred says, holding his stuffed giraffe, looking at them pitifully. “Wanna sleep with the baby.”

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll have just one more chapter, dealing with the fall out of the news the next morning.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, thanks so much for all of you who commented on the last chapter! It is so lovely and helpful to know you're out there and invested. I appreciate you taking the time to do so, and to read! Love hearing from you.

Fred stands in the doorway with his stuffed giraffe. Alec and Ellie look at each other, both flushed, silently deciding which one of them will escape and hop in the shower first. Ellie knows she’s about to lose this battle, so she holds out her arms to Fred and says, “Come here, lovely.”

She moves to the edge of the bed and Fred runs into her arms and onto her lap. “Hi Mumma.” He smiles up at her like the right charmer he is.

“Just hoppin’ in the shower, Fred, back shortly.” Alec crawls off the bed.

“That why you have no shirt?” Fred inquires. Then he sticks a hand into Ellie’s bra. She sighs. That is not the hand she had hoped to have in there. “And why _you _have no shirt?”

Alec scurries into the master bathroom and leaves her to fend off that one. 

“That’s right, love, you caught us just getting ready for bed,” she replies, then she cuddles him. “Thought you were gonna sleep with Daiz.” 

“Missed you,” Fred replies, and then: “Wanted to see the baby.”

Ellie stares at the closed bathroom door silently cursing Alec. “Can’t see the baby yet, love. Not for a good while.”

“Lie down please.”

Ellie raises an eyebrow at him.

“Mumma, lie down please! Rhino wants to look at the baby!”

Rhino is the name of Fred’s stuffed giraffe. Inexplicably.

Fred crawls off of her and waits for her to lie on her back. She does so reluctantly, remembering just moments ago when Alec was between her legs and not a ruddy stuffed giraffe. Fred sits beside her, inspecting her like she’s a body at the morgue. He pokes her stomach. 

“He’s in there?"

“We don’t know it’s a he,” she replies patiently.

He leans down and puts his ear to her stomach. He listens intently. “…Don’t hear anything.”

She has to smile. “_Fred_. Darling, there’s nothing to hear yet. Nothing to hear, nothing to see.” 

He lifts his head up and frowns at her. “Then how d’you know it’s there?”

“The doctor knows,” she explains. “The doctor told us.”

“The doctor can see him?” Fred squints at her belly button.

“Well. With his machines, yes.”

He places Rhino on top of her bare abdomen.

“Will we see him soon?”

“Not for a while, love,” she replies. “Maybe start to notice him in a few weeks. _Her_, ach.”

Fred leans forward again, staring at her stomach from an inch away. “How will we see him?”

Alec comes out of the loo, a towel around his waist, hair damp. He immediately starts chuckling softly at the sight of Ellie lying flat on the bed in her underwear with Fred’s face against her stomach.

“We’ll see _her _because I’ll start to get a little bigger,” she explains, then gestures at her middle. “Right around here.” 

Fred notices Alec’s return and looks up. “Did _you _see him?!?!”

“Wha, the baby?” Alec goes into his bureau and pulls out his pyjamas pants and another t-shirt. “I saw him on the machine. At the doctor.”

Ellie clears her throat, and Alec instantly knows how he’s offended her. “_Her_,” he amends.

Fred brings his head down to Ellie’s stomach again. Alec drops the towel and changes into his pyjamas. 

“Right then, my turn, love,” Ellie says to Alec, sitting up.

“Rhino’s not done,” Fred says.

“He’ll have to wait.” She kisses Fred’s cheek and hops off the bed. She approaches Alec as he pulls on his loose t-shirt. “You’re up.” She kisses Alec’s cheek too, and he quickly seizes the opportunity to run his index finger along the outline of her bra cup, mourning their lost tryst. “Have fun.”

She disappears into the loo. Now dressed for bed, Alec hops onto the bed with surprising enthusiasm.

“All right, Freddie, do your worst,” he says, making himself comfortable.

Fred sits with Rhino in his lap, holding the stuffed animal tightly as he looks at Alec with open, vulnerable eyes. “When will the baby be here?”

“Oh…” Alec tries to do math in his head. “’Bout seven and a half months.” _Oh christ_, he thinks to himself. Why does eight months feel so much farther away than seven and a half?

“How long is that?” Fred asks.

“Not til the summer,” Alec clarifies. 

Fred nods as if this all suddenly makes perfect sense. “Love baby in the summer.”

Alec smiles. “Love baby in the summer.”

“Did you ask for a baby?”

“….What d’you mean, lad?”

“Did you ask Mummy for a baby? Like as a present?”

“Well. No.” He wrings his hands together. “We didn’t really know we wanted one, your mum and me. It was all a big surprise.”

“Will the baby be a little like Daisy and a little like me and Tom?” 

“Dunno, Fred.” Alec thinks about it. “Somethin’ like that, I s’pose. Have a little of all of us in her.”

“Will it look like me?!”

“We’ll have to see, but if she’s lucky she’ll look like your mum.”

"I look like my mum!" Fred smiles. “Bet she’ll be lucky. A lucky lucky baby.”

The child crawls onto Alec’s lap. “Will Mumma still hold me when the baby comes?”

“Course she will, lad,” Alec replies, with surprise. “That’s her very favorite thing to do, hold you.”

“I can still snuggle in your bed?”

“Well.” He hesitates. “Sometimes, yeah.” 

“Will Mumma get too big for me to snuggle?”

Alec chuckles. “She’ll start to look and feel a little different, that’s for certain, but I don’t think you’ll have any problems getting’ a good snuggle in.”

“Will you?”

“Will I what?”

“You like to snuggle Mumma too,” Fred answers. “Cept you like to do it with no clothes sometimes.”

“Uh.”

Ellie enters from the master bathroom in a towel.

Alec is a bit flummoxed. “Fred, you haven’t…you’ve never…I mean.” He glances over at Ellie, who is listening curiously. “How d’you know about snuggling with no clothes on?”

Ellie’s eyes widen, having just walked in on this conversation. She goes to dig out her pyjamas, albeit distractedly.

“Sometimes I come in here but then I run away real fast so no one can hear me!” Fred exclaims, and it appears he is more proud of himself than anything else. “When I hear funny sounds I know it’s time to go bug Tom.”

Ellie nearly drops her towel in shock.

“Um.” Alec clears his throat. “And when you go bug Tom, what d’you tell him?”

Fred shrugs. “That Mumma and Alec are snuggling and I can’t go in,” he says. “S’okay though. Sometimes when I’m sad or scared I like to snuggle alone with Mumma too. But now that I’m _five_, I don’t get sad or scared as much. I bet the baby will though.”

Now changed into her pyjamas, Ellie joins them on the bed. Fred crawls off Alec’s lap and onto hers. “Are you ready for bed, my little love?” She runs her fingers through his hair.

“Is the baby ready for bed?”

She smiles. “Oh, the baby is _always _ready for bed.”

“Baby is sleepy?”

“_Always. _Loves to make Mumma sleepy too.”

Alec crawls up the bed and opens the covers to Fred. “Come on in, lad. Rhino too.”

They all crawl underneath the covers, Fred and Rhino in the middle. Alec and Ellie face each other, while Fred clings to Ellie like a barnacle, his head just underneath her breasts, his legs and arms fixed around her middle. Alec smiles at them, then reaches back and turns off the light. They lie quietly, and as their eyes adjust to the darkness, Ellie and Alec are both still looking at each other, lazy little smiles on their faces. Alec reaches out and touches her cheek, then tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. Fred is snoring already. 

Alec inches even closer to stretches forward to kiss her lips. She reaches across Fred and interlaces with fingers with Alec’s.

“Promise we’ll still have time to get our snuggles in,” she whispers to him with a smirk.

“I’ll hold you to it, lass.”

She closes her eyes and he watches her for a while, until he falls asleep too.

In the morning, they are woken by the bedroom door creeping open, as they often are. Sometime in the night, Alec and Ellie managed to tangle themselves together as they usually do, despite Fred’s wriggly presence. Fred, somehow, is asleep near the foot of the bed, on top of Ellie’s feet.

Daisy and Tom come padding into the room at first light, both exhausted. Daisy sits on the foot of the bed near Alec’s feet and Tom sits on Ellie’s side of the bed with her back to him. 

“Mum,” Tom says. “Dad,” Daisy says.

When Alec and Ellie wrestle themselves away from sleep, they are both equally stunned to find their teenagers on the bed with them. This _never_happens.

They both rub the sleep from their eyes wearily.

“Can we talk?” Daisy asks.

“Course, sweetheart,” Alec replies sitting up. 

Ellie sits up a bit as well, inching over to give Tom more room beside her. Fred remains dead to the world as her feet, curled up like a cat. Ellie leans back against Alec, and they both try to focus themselves on the moment at hand sans caffeine of any kind.

“Just a bit confused about this whole thing,” Tom says, diving right in. “Since you’ve not…you know, you’ve not been together that long.”

Alec shrugs. He relaxes back against the headboard and enjoys the feeling of Ellie relaxing against _him_. “Bit like we’ve been together for ages,” he says. “If you think about it.”

“Well, no, you haven’t though,” Tom argues, squaring in on Alec.“You actually left for a while, if you recall.”

“That was…that was after a difficult period, Tom,” Ellie says. “And we weren’t together then. It’s not as if he left me.” 

“And I never will, lad,” Alec says. “As I said. I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

“Easy to say that now,” Tom replies. “Even easy to _think _that now. But – “

“Who’s to say what happened with you and Mum won’t happen again?” Daisy adds. 

Alec sighs. “_I _am.”

“Daisy,” Ellie says, reaching out to touch her hand. “Not every relationship is built to last. And I know how hard it can be to try to understand which ones _are_. _Believe _me, I know. But your dad and I know what both sides feel like now. We’ve both been through marriages that weren’t meant to be. And I think now we can know better than ever what it feels like to be in a relationship that _is_.” 

“So will you get married?” Tom asks.

Ellie and Alec both exhale at the same time. “Don’t think so, lad,” Alec replies.

“Why?” 

“Well, ‘cause we’ve both _done _that, love,” Ellie answers. “And it didn’t work for us. We’re going to be together every day because we wake up and _want _to be together every day. Not ‘cause it’s written down somewhere.”

Tom looks at Alec. “Make it a lot easier for you to leave again.”

“Alec did not leave us, Tom,” Ellie says firmly. “We were not his to leave then.” 

“But what if you have a baby and then you…” Daisy trails off, looking away from them.

“’S okay to be worried, Daiz,” Alec says. “Can’t blame you for it. But my love for Ellie is….” He shakes his head, to himself. “I couldn’t do it, couldn’t leave her. Don’t even like it when we’re assigned to separate cases. Can’t rightly fathom a world where we no longer share a bed.”

Ellie turns her head back and plants a kiss on his jaw briefly.

“What about Dad though?” Tom sets Ellie in his sights again. “How do we know it’s not gonna be like that again, Mum?” Everyone on the bed noticeably tenses. “Not like your taste in men gets a gold star or anything.”

“All right, lad, take it easy,” Alec tells him sternly. He tries not to get too involved in issues relating to Joe, and has worked very hard to build a healthy relationship with Tom himself. But he doesn’t like where this is going. 

Fred rouses, and when he sits up his face immediately breaks into a grin at finding all his favorite people in the same bed at the same time. He crawls onto Alec and Ellie and settles on top of both of them, holding his stuffed giraffe tight.

“I just don’t want to…I dunno, I don’t want to go through something like that again,” Tom says, careful not to meet anyone’s else. “If you’ve made a mistake.”

“Oh, love.” Ellie reaches out to touch his cheek and is pleasantly surprised when he doesn’t immediately jerk away. “You won’t have to. I won’t let you. And…look at him.” Ellie turns her head to look at Alec, who is leaning his chin on her shoulder, and has an arm around Fred. “There’s nothing but love here.” Alec kisses her shoulder. “We’re all right, love. We’re all doing just fine, yeah?”

Tom is clearly aware that all eyes are on him, and he nods, to the relief of everyone on the bed.

“And any time you don’t feel all right, you come to me, and we’ll make it all right,” Ellie finishes.

“Yeah, okay,” Tom says. “Sorry, Mum.”

Fred has fallen asleep again, leaning back against Alec. To Ellie’s utter shock and delight, Tom inches over to her and curls up against her, leaning his head on her other shoulder. She kisses the top of his head.

“Love you,” Tom tells her, and she nearly gasps, for she cannot _remember _the last time he’s said it to her _first_.

She pulls him against her, her arm around his shoulders. “I love you, my sweet boy.”

He grunts at that.

The tension begins to dissipate and Daisy lies down at the foot of the bed with a dramatic sigh, staring up at the ceiling. “’m not babysittin’ for free.”

Alec snorts. “You bloody well are.”

***


End file.
